The Scottish Government’s Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement recognises that the effects of COVID-19 “layer on top of existing structural imbalances and are predicted to be particularly severe for people on low incomes.”ivhttps://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2021-2022-equality-fairer-scotland-budget-statement/ page 57As well as a disproportionately higher rate of positive cases and mortality “they are more likely to experience poorer underlying mental and physical health and are also more likely to be in insecure work without financial reserves.”ivhttps://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2021-2022-equality-fairer-scotland-budget-statement/ page 57
Our Adviser identifies four challenges which both the Scottish Government and the Parliament will need to consider moving forward—
Differential impacts of the crisis across age, income and education groups;
Differential impacts of the crisis across places;
The major impact on learning, especially for children from deprived backgrounds;
The unwinding of business support measures and more targeted support.